Newsmakers for Aug. 25: HISD superintendent says focus is on the children

Plus: Human trafficking in Houston, flooding prevention projects

HOUSTON – The Houston Independent School District is the largest district in Texas and starts the 2019 school year with Texas-sized challenges.

The Texas Education Agency has threatened to remove the school board over low scoring schools and other issues. The HISD board is suing the TEA accusing it of racial bias among other issues.

Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan is a guest this week on Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshal and says her job is to keep the focus away from the drama.

“What I tell our teachers and our principals and all of our staff members, including my cabinet members, let me handle the issues that are going on as it relates to what’s happening with the board of education,” she said. “They are to be focused on the daily work of teaching children.”

World tour starting in Houston to see impact of human trafficking

Dr. Bob Sanborn is the president and CEO of Children at Risk, where they monitor a number of issues that impact children.

Human trafficking is one of the big concerns and Sanborn is leading two groups from Houston for 10-day trips around the world to see the wide-ranging effects of the human trafficking industry.

“We want everyone to be a foot soldier in the fight for children and in this case a foot soldier in the fight to end trafficking, and we think this trip is going to really help a lot."

How to sign up to take part on this week’s program.

2 years after Harvey: Prevention projects sped up by 30%

As some areas of the Houston community are still recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Harvey, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo says recovery has been sped up dramatically and more rules are in place to help avoid disastrous flooding in the future.

“We’ve worked to find shortcuts,” she said. “To bring engineers from across the country, and we’re still doing independent looks at what else we can do to move even faster which is how we were able to cut that time by a third.”

See more of Hidalgo’s Hurricane Harvey remedies on the broadcast. You can also watch a replay of the Houston Newsmakers Hurricane Special here.